Briggs to tilt at national title

Press, 9 December 1981, Page 31

Briggs to tilt at national title

By

JOHN COFFEY

The well-performed Christchurch professional boxer, Eric Briggs, at last has the opportunity — if not quite a signed and sealed agreement — to tilt at a national championship title. Briggs and his trainer, Wally Darrell, are keen to have a return matching with the unbeaten former New Zealand amateur representative, Fred Taufua.

To add lustre to the proposed contest, the Auckland promoter, Mike Edwards, hopes to arrange for Briggs to meet Taufua for the vacant light middleweight crown. Mr Darrell said yesterday that Briggs had agreed to such a bout, probably at Carlaw Park in late February. Although Briggs was beaten by Taufua — who thus retained his perfect re-

cord in his ninth professional fight — at Stanley Street last week, Mr Darrell disputed the majority decision. The quietly-spoken Mr Darrell is not inclined to make extravagant claims, but he was adamant that the verdict was “one of two bad decisions.” The other was the shock loss of the Australian, Steve Dennis, who gained the support of only one of three judges in spite of twice knocking down Monty Betham in an event for the Australasian middleweight championship. “Eric won all right, but not by much,” Mr Darrell said. “At the end of the bout I said to him that we’d leave it for the judges — it was

that close — but I thought he had it won. “Manny Santos, a> former Commonwealth champion who really knows how to judge a fight, had Eric ahead by three points, and I reckon that was about right. Of the other two, one was way out,” Mr Darrell said. Indeed, it was a controversial evening for Hugh O’Neill, who had Taufua ahead on points. He was also one of the judges who had the battered Betham beating Dennis. “We would have wanted a rematch with Taufua anyway, even before the light middleweight title was discussed. Eric will have no problem getting down to the 70 kg limit, and Taufua was just a little over that last week,” Mr Darrell said. “There are one or two

stipulations, though. We want sanction from the New Zealand Boxing Association, and for it to be over 15 rounds so that it will be official — we will not accept any 12-round so-called championship affair; the rules say 15, so it must be 15,” he said. Mr Darrell is not concerned about Briggs’s staying powers — "he’s go, go, go, and he’ll keep on going.” Aged "about 28 or 29,” Briggs, according to Mr Darrell, is training and boxing with a vigour of someone a decade younger. Probably the busiest professional in New Zealand this year, Briggs has proved a great crowd-pleaser in his five contests in Auckland. He convincingly won twice against opponents from the Pacific Islands, all but upset the highly-regarded Australian, Billy Johnstone, “lost” narrowly to Taufua, and met his match only in the

Hawaiian-based Samoan, George Tanoa. Circumstances have contrived to prevent Briggs from bidding for national titles in the past. Some years ago, he beat the then New Zealand light middleweight champion, Eddie Tavau, over 10 rounds, but Tavau retired before Briggs could again take him on. A memorable victory over Lance Revill in late 1978 prompted an offer of a return bout for the light heavyweight championship. Because of the considerable amount of weight that Briggs would have had to concede, it was declined. However, Briggs now has his sights set firmly on righting the record against Taufua. Mr Darrell said that Briggs would stay in light training for about a month, before building up towards the clash at Carlaw Park.